London Suite by Neil Simon

I saw Neil Simon's play London Suite at the Stables Theatre in Hastings. A quartet of short plays all set in one suite in a London hotel. Well worth seeing, there's sufficient variety, from slapstick and verbal comedy to pathos and tragedy, for a wide appeal. The third of the plays, 'Diana and Sidney' came out the best of the four, with excellent casting - Jenny Lloyd-Jones and David Morley as a divorced couple who meet again in desperate circumstances.

Well worth seeing if you're in Hastings, it's on till the 29th.

http://stablestheatre.co.uk/

Haiku on the Beach

Living near the sea is beginning to help my waning creativity.


Haiku on the Beach

Flashes of soft grey, white

Stabbing yellow

Gulls fight over a fish head. 

Bathers, splash-happy in the surf;

The lone black crow

Picks flies off seaweed.



Pebbles sunbathe along

The vast, bright beach,

With memories of mountains.

More Haiku in July

Bright light sheets behind the hills.

A stone trough cracks,  

There is no rain.               

The third osprey chick, 

Grown fat on trout, soars

Joy-high on new-found wings.

When earth is brown, sandy

the knowing slow-worm slips

beneath hot, white stones.

On Green Dolphin Street, novel by Sebastien Faulkes.

I picked this book up because the title was intriguing, I felt I'd heard of it. This is the first Sebastien Faulkes novel I've read, and to be honest it maybe the last.

Basically a love-triangle, the story is set in UK/USA diplomatic circles in 1959. It was ok-ish, but it took me three false starts before I finally got engaged in the story. I found I couldn't empathise with the characters in the way that some other reviewers have said they did. The back stories got in the way, interrupted the immediacy of the narrative and I never felt the author was getting right the characterisation of Mary, the female protagonist.

The Washington/New York setting was ok, but I felt like an outsider looking in and the parts set in England didn't ring true for me. The best section was when Mary had to fly to the USSR to rescue her alcoholic husband, Charlie. Here her fear and Charlie's paranoia were well backed up by the setting. But back to the intriguing title, Miles Davis musical version of Green Dolphin Street is superior to this novel. Maybe I should try Elizabeth Gouge's 'Green Dolphin Street' next.

My review posted on goodreads too - "https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2177722